Echoes from the Veil (Aisling Chronicles)

by Colleen Halverson

He reached over and smoothed my hair. “You need to heal. You’re not going anywhere in your state.”

  Sleep tugged at my eyelids and a fresh wave of exhaustion overcame me. I fought it as long as I could, and then I knew no more.

  When I woke up again, Finn was gone and the pain that had earlier gripped my body had all but disappeared. Night had fallen, and I sat up, taking long gulps of water from the pitcher beside my bed. I dressed myself, trying to move as little as possible, pushing back the waves of exhaustion tugging at my limbs. Eventually, I made my way to the council room, where, in spite of the heavy door guarding it, the sounds of shouts and passionate cries echoed through the caverns.

  I walked inside and let out a long exhale at the bedlam greeting me. Fae stood on one side, Fianna and Druids on another, their shouting blending together in bursts of ear-splitting sound. Finn frowned in the corner but looked up when he spotted me, standing up straight. When he moved, a stab of rage pierced me. Charlotte sat beside him, studying her nails. I squashed the emotion, pushing it way down the elevator shaft of the darkest regions of my soul until it disappeared. I had to remain focused for what we needed to do next. And in the end, if Eamonn couldn’t figure out the secrets of the Fir Bolgs’ device, we would need her.

  I took a deep breath, straightened my shoulders, and marched into the chamber. The shouting match quieted, and Amergin raised his hand, silencing the last of his fiery warriors.

  “I’m glad you are all here,” I said, gazing across the room. Soft, beautiful Fae. Strong, hardened Fianna. Intelligent Druids. We had done it. Come together as Trinity as we had never done before. A true alliance, and now we would steer the universe from the brink of destruction…if they could all be quiet for five fucking minutes.

  “The attack on the Fir Bolgs weakened their forces,” I continued. “Gather supplies, weapons. We will leave for Teamhair at dawn and take the castle.”

  “A full assault?” Amergin interjected. “How is that wise?”

  I didn’t need an assault. I needed a distraction, but I couldn’t reveal that. Not until the very moment I slipped into the castle to stop Thornton and steal the device. I couldn’t literally be two places at once, but with a little Druid magic, I might be able to buy us some time.

  “We cannot simply take a castle. A castle guarded to the teeth by soldiers with weapons that can pierce our immortality. We must be smarter. This is ludicrous,” Amergin objected.

  Finn bolted to standing, his chair rattling. “Are you going to hear out Elizabeth’s plan, or are you going to insist on mansplaining for the rest of the day?”

  Amergin spluttered. “Mansplaining?”

  “Yes. Mansplaining.” Finn puffed out his chest and glared at the bard. “It’s when a man attempts to explain something to a woman about a subject in which she is richly versed and experienced. There is no one who understands this foe better than Elizabeth, so I suggest you sit down, hear out her plan, and wait for the Q&A period after.”

  Amergin blinked, his mouth opening and closing like a fish on a hook.

  Finn grabbed the pommel of his sword, unsheathing it an inch. “Sit. Down.”

  And by some miracle, Amergin did.

  “Okay, so as I was saying…” My voice shook for a moment, and I swallowed hard, starting again. Moving pieces across a makeshift map of Teamhair, I walked everyone through their positions. Malachy had filled me in on the weak spots in Teamhair’s walls, and after the ward came down, Druid fire and a dragan attack would keep the Fir Bolgs busy, hopefully busy enough for me to get in the castle, free Grainne, take out Thornton, and destroy the device. Thornton would be heavily guarded, but it would be nothing I couldn’t handle— I hoped. It was me they wanted. And I would bring myself to them.

  The Druids and Fae all marched off, whispering to each other. Finn and Charlotte remained in the empty room. Charlotte crossed and uncrossed her legs, fidgeting with the edge of her shirt.

  “Finn,” I said. “Go see to Eamonn. I need to know where he is with everything.”

  “I—”

  I raised my hand. “Please. I need to talk to Charlotte. Alone.”

  He nodded then slipped out of the chamber.

  I studied Charlotte. Of course Finn would have fallen in love with her long ago. So calm and collected. Even in these rugged quarters, she peered up at me as if she were staring out from the cover of Vogue. I wanted to hate her, but the only person I raged at was myself. Disgusted by my own jealousy. My fear of her. I fought armies, traveled across time and space for Finn, and now it all seemed so tenuous. Love. Perhaps that was fleeting, too. “You seemed to have made yourself at home,” I said.

  She bowed her head. “The Fae are very hospitable.”

  “Do you think about that before you torture them?”

  Charlotte shook her head. “I was never a part of that.”

  “And yet, you were there,” I said. “In that secret facility, earning my trust, culling my secrets.”

  “I was.” She stared at the floor before looking at me. “But mostly, I took care of my family. Did accounts. I was no more than a glorified secretary.”

  “I’ve heard the Nazis also had very good secretaries.”

  She frowned. “You speak so confidently about the past for one so young. I lived through German occupation. You want to think it’s all so simple, but it isn’t. War never is.”

  “You are at war with my people. And that makes you my enemy.”

  Her features remained smooth as glass, but I swear I saw her lips twitch. She was testing me, forcing me to show my hand.

  “You keep speaking about ‘your family.’” I sat down on a hollow in the cave, smoothing my hand over the stone. “Who are they?”

  Charlotte smiled and wandered over to the strategy table, playing with the tiny wooden blocks. “Trinity has its own magical races, but there are other secret societies all across the world. Eastern Europe, China…America. Some have infiltrated into the highest offices of the land. My father is a part of an ancient tradition that came from the old country, and our family has been in the government for generations, manipulating things behind the scenes.”

  “So why come over to the Fianna?” I asked.

  “Amergin recruited me,” she replied. “Perhaps I had that Celtic warrior blood running somewhere within my veins, and it called to him. I wanted to escape my father, the hold he had on me. In any case, I wasn’t long in their order before I met Finn.”

  “And yet, you turned your back on him.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I had to. To protect him. My father would have destroyed him. I renounced him to spare his life.”

  I raised my hands. “Save it.”

  She sighed. “I don’t expect you to believe me.”

  “Good, because I don’t.” I wandered over to the strategy table, wiping away the blocks and placing one at Teamhair.

  “So why does your family want to help the American government pull off this mission? Why separate the worlds?”

  She paused for a moment, as if to choose her words carefully. “My family believes the Fae possess far too much power. All of Trinity does. With Tír na nÓg out of the picture, their interests can only continue to rise.”

  I folded my arms and leaned against the edge of the table. “Do you think Thornton can do it? Create a portal into Mag Mell?”

  “Thornton has the kind of magic to enter Mag Mell, to seek out the Tree of Life. Once he breaks into that magical plane, the Fir Bolgs will use the bomb to sever ties with this dimension.” She shrugged. “Like cutting off a tree limb, basically.”

  I hated her nonchalance, the unfeeling way she ticked down the secrets to the Fir Bolgs’ plan. At any moment, Thornton could break through into Mag Mell, allowing the Fir Bolgs inside that magical plane. He said he needed me, but that could have been just bait. He had tried to use me before, though, and I had thwarted
his efforts. Perhaps I could do it again. But how?

  “Tell me how to dismantle the device,” I said.

  “You will kill me the instant I reveal it to you,” she snapped back.

  “I won’t. I give you my word.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Your word isn’t good enough. I want something else.”

  My blood turned to ice, and my shoulders tensed. A sick feeling overcame me, and I pushed down the quickening fear in my stomach. “What do you want, Charlotte?”

  She wandered toward me, her clear blue eyes never leaving my face. She towered over me, but I stood firm, my hand itching for my spear.

  “I want Finn.”

  “Finn is his own person. I can’t give him to you like a car or a watch.”

  “Forsake him.” Charlotte’s lips stretched across her small teeth in a grimace. “Give him up. Tell him you don’t love him anymore.”

  “You’re disgusting,” I hissed.

  “I made a mistake!” she cried out, her eyes shimmering. “I should have been stronger against my father. I should have returned to Finn, but I was scared and alone. He is my husband, and he belongs to me.”

  “I won’t do this.”

  She backed away. “Then you don’t get the plans. Then all of us die.”

  “Are you insane?” Rage bellowed up through my chest, my throat tightening. “Whatever you and the Fir Bolgs planned, the universe is about to break apart. If you loved Finn, if you loved anyone beside yourself, you would help us. You would give us the plans.”

  “Never,” she said. “Not unless you give him up.”

  “No,” I shouted.

  I barely had time to react before two glints of steel flashed in her palms. Raising my hands and summoning my powers, I stopped time, allowing myself a moment to dodge a knife and sending the second blade racing back toward her shoulder. Her eyes bulging, she ducked just in time, but not before it slashed her shirt.

  She glared at the trickle of red staining the coarse fabric. “You have many interesting tricks, Elizabeth Tanner. But I was raised in a dojo under the tutelage of the samurai of Japan. You don’t frighten me.”

  Power built in my fingertips, my body shaking with energy. “I don’t give a shit where you grew up. I just need you to dismantle a bomb, and then you’re free to crawl back under whatever rock you came from.”

  “And if I refuse?” Her gaze shifted to the small knife three feet away.

  Before she could move an inch, I blasted her with the full force of my power, holding her still as a statue. “You don’t get to refuse. You do as I say, or I destroy you.”

  “I’d like to see you try, Aisling,” she said through gritted teeth.

  With a deep breath, I closed my eyes, pulling at the threads of my power, twisting it around and around her arms like the silk of a spiderweb. It was so easy to split it, control the skin, the muscles and sinew. I gave in to one single tug with my mind, pulling until Charlotte screamed. A corrupt darkness took hold of me, the answers to the plans so close in the sounds of her shrieking, and with each scream, her terror expanded my power. I reveled in it.

  “Elizabeth!”

  Finn’s voice broke my concentration, and I staggered, my eyes fluttering open. Oh, fuck.

  Charlotte fell to her knees, shaking and crying.

  “Jesus,” I whispered, stepping back, rubbing my hands down my arms, my chest, wishing I could wash off the darkness that had overcome me, but it crept under my skin like a poison, eating away at my insides. Nausea gripped me, and I grasped onto the wall of the cave, panting.

  Finn grabbed my elbow. “What are you doing?”

  Charlotte scrambled to her feet. “Is this what you want, Finn? This psychopath? This torturer?”

  I shoved my hands behind my back as if I could hide what I had done. How could I have allowed myself to sink so low? Did I really hate Charlotte so much? And where had such hatred come from? Her betrayal? Her bond to Finn? My desperation to save the world?

  It didn’t matter. No one deserved what I had done, but the power had been so seductive, and I’d given in to it as surely as I would hold out my cup for more wine. It had poured into me so easily. Shrugging back my shoulders, I pointed at Charlotte.

  “Take her to Eamonn.” I swallowed hard. “She will help him.”

  Charlotte leveled me with a hard stare.

  “She will help him,” I said in a quieter voice, and I gave her a small, meaningful nod. In that moment, I decided to let Finn go. Not forsake him. Not give him to Charlotte. But I wouldn’t beg. I wouldn’t cry or plead for him to stay. And after the war, after we had won, Finn could decide which oath mattered more to him. Marriage or love. The Fianna or the new world to come.

  I refused to look at him as I left the room, walking calmly outside the caverns even though every nerve in my body screamed at me to run. Run. Keep running and never look back. Instead, I forced my limbs to stop shaking, pausing for a moment. I took a deep breath and gazed over the organized chaos sprawling in front of me. Fae, Fianna, and Druids working together, creating supply lines, cleaning weapons, stacking them in crates for transportation. Soon. Soon we would all stand together on the fields before Teamhair, coordinated to a common purpose—to save the world. I stared up at the broken sky above and thought of Danu and Bel. I had to bring them together somehow, save them from the threat of the Fir Bolgs, the threat of the Morrígan, the threat of chaos and darkness. It was bigger than Charlotte. Bigger than Finn. It meant the future of everything.

  I found Una training with the other handmaidens, Aodhan watching over her, his arms crossed, a slight smile on his face. I lingered behind a tree, studying her patient movements as she slowly demonstrated a parrying technique. She had taken well to sword fighting, and I barely recognized her beneath her leather armor. Her jaw was set as she studied her students’ movements, and she nodded as the handmaiden completed the form, giving praise and suggestions for improvement. Her confidence had grown since coming here, since meeting Aodhan, and my heart ached for her and the quiet strength she possessed. She was not the woman I had met so long ago. But then again, none of us were.

  “Nice work, Una,” I interrupted.

  Una didn’t falter. She finished the form, parrying an attack.

  “Something Aodhan taught me.” She winked at him, and he uncrossed his arms when he spotted me.

  “Your Highness,” he said with a bow.

  “I take it the Fae are all in order for our attack?” I asked.

  He paled, glancing at Una.

  I slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I know you have everything under control.”

  Aodhan relaxed his shoulders, but his gaze grew serious. “Your Highness, are you sure you want to take a stand at Teamhair? We have other options…”

  “I know,” I said. “You’ve schooled me well in them. Now, I need you to trust me.”

  He let out a low exhale. “As you wish.”

  We discussed a few more details about the attack, and then he gave us each a graceful bow and disappeared toward the camp.

  I turned to Una, whose smile faltered as Aodhan walked away. She sheathed her weapon, picking up various battle gear and training weapons from the ground.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said, picking up a random training sword and glancing around the grounds. “Privately.”

  She furrowed her brow. The handmaidens were my most trusted inner circle, and we tended to do everything together as a team. Una waved the women away, and the two of us wandered from the clearing into the woods and toward the spring.

  “What is it?” She pivoted on her heel, the late summer breeze lifting strands of her hair away from her face. The sun illuminated the long locks, turning them honey gold.

  “I need to ask something of you, but it’s dangerous,” I said with a long exhale.

  “What
ever you need. You know that.”

  “I know.” I swallowed hard. “But this is beyond anything I could ever ask of anyone.”

  Una narrowed her eyes at me. “Out with it.”

  “The attack on Teamhair. It’s not an attack, not really. Mostly, it’s a distraction.”

  She nodded slowly. “A distraction so you can take the castle.”

  “Yes,” I said. “As you recall, there’s a spell, Eamonn can—”

  “You need me to be disguised as you,” she said. “I can do that.”

  My throat tightened. “It’s so dangerous. The Fir Bolgs will be after you. You’ll be a target. I just don’t see another way.”

  “I will do it.” Her hand shot out and grabbed mine, gripping it tight. “I will fight for you. It has always been our destiny. We have always been on the frontlines, but now I know what we’re fighting for.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Friendship.” She pulled me into an embrace. “Love.”

  Tears threatened to fall, and I sniffed hard, willing them not to escape.

  “I think I’ve lost him, Una.”

  She leaned away, her eyes wide. “You’re not talking about that Fir Bolg lackey Charlotte.”

  I snorted, the tears falling freely now. “Yeah. She…and…Finn…they’re married. They’re to be together. I can’t stop her. I can’t. There’s too much at stake.”

  “Oh, really?” She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Let me tell you something about immortality. It’s a long fucking time.”

  I let out a barking laugh. I had no idea Una had even the physical capacity to curse. Probably a bad habit she picked up from me.

  She stroked my cheek, her touch cool and soothing. “She had every chance to return to him, but she didn’t. She’s been telling everyone who will listen that she had no choice, that her father had vowed to destroy Finn if she returned to him. I don’t believe that for a second, and even if it were true, it makes her a coward.”

  “Okay, okay. You’re right.”

  “Finn has to work through this. It’s who the man is, and you know that. But I do know one thing…” She took a deep breath and stared at me, her brown eyes bottomless and full of emotion. “The two of you were meant to be together. He may return to this mystery woman or not, but no matter what happens, he will always find his way back to you. Some things are fated. Some kinds of love are stronger than destiny. It’s not even what’s meant to be. It’s simply what is. Like air. Like the sky. Like the stars. These things cannot be changed.”